A project in Copenhagen will create three floating classrooms

The capital of the happiest country in the world, Denmark*, will soon get a new multi-purpose waterfront development. This week, Scandinavian architecture firm, C. F. Møller Landscape, won the “Nordhavn Islands” international competition to design part of the waterfront in the growing Nordhavn district, a harbor area in Copenhagen. The firm’s project proposes “an innovative learning, activity and water landscape” adjacent to a planned international school (which C. F. Møller is also designing). Three floating classrooms would give students opportunities to learn outside, even fish and kayak. The design blends a range of concepts—the urban park, the educational classroom, and the recreational community center—right on the waterfront.

(Courtesy C. F. Møller)

The Møller proposal features three separate “islands” ringed with low-maintenance plantings: “’The Reef,’ a multifunctional platform for aqua learning and events in extension of the quayside; ‘The Lagoon,’ a floating arena for activities such as kayak polo and other water sports, and ‘The Sun Bath,’ an actual harbor bath with a sauna and protected areas for swimming training,” notes the firm in a press release.

(Courtesy C. F. Møller)

“We are passionate about creating new urban and landscape spaces that focus on integrating building and landscape because we believe that it adds value to the project concerned and to the city as a whole,” said C. F. Møller head, Lasse Palm, in a statement.

(Courtesy C. F. Møller)

Nordhavn Islands and the Copenhagen International School—that will be the largest school in the city—are expected to open summer 2017.

(Courtesy C. F. Møller)

*The United States is ranked the 13th happiest country by the way, in a recent report that found correlations between the happiness of a country’s citizens with gross domestic product per-capita, social support, health, and other factors.